A Fork On The Bridge
by LoVeLuKe
Summary: LL PostPartings before Christopher's phone call to Lorelai. She wanders the streets one fatefull night not expecting anything from it, surprise surprise, she finds a bottle of scotch and it's owner JAVAJUNKIE


**I was bored at work one day and my mind wandered. It went to a million places before it ended up with this story.**

**Ok so… This is set After Parting's but before Chris called Lorelai.**

**Give it a try, you know me and my stories (and if not I suggest you get to know me from my other fics and not this one… or 'Luke's Neverending Shield') anyways, I'm a Java so give this a go.**

**Kylie hi, good thing you're ok after the crash D**

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.o0 The Bridge 0o.

It was late and Stars Hollow was mostly deserted, and that's when Lorelai would feel worst; everything was quiet and Paul Anka was sleeping, something she hadn't done in a while. She'd usually just stay home and watch a movie, or just think of how much different her life would be like now, if she hadn't gone to Boston that night; after all, Luke did show up at her door stop the next day so they could get married. _Idiot, I could've been married now, and to the man I love._

She was walking slowly and aimlessly, pretty much letting destiny guide her way; mostly because her mind was somewhere else. That's how she had ended up here: standing on the bridge, five feet away from the guy who hadn't even noticed her presence, he just sat there with his feet dangling above the water and a bottle with some sort of alcohol in his hand _this is it, leave or try and at least clear the air between us._

"Luke, right?" Lorelai called slowly making her way closer to him; he heard her voice but didn't turn or acknowledged her. "I don't know if you remember me but we met a few years back…" his head snapped up but still he didn't turn. "… I'm Mimi, I came to your Diner once" Luke snorted and shook his head but was still focusing on the water. "Mind if I sit?" he shrugged his shoulders before taking a long swing of scotch. "Wow, I didn't know you were such a drinker"

"I've been on a self-destruct pattern for a couple of months now" Luke answered playing along.

"Nah, I don't believe that, you don't seem that type" Lorelai said and Luke turned to give her a look; he wanted to know if she was serious about this game they were starting.

"I am" he said looking her dead in the eyes. "I pushed my fiancé to another mans arms… and bed" he added before taking another swing. "Not just any man, but the only man she knows I hate"

"Wow, she sounds like a real witch with a b"

"She's not" Luke snapped like if someone had actually insulted Lorelai, instead of it being her talking about herself. "It was my fault…"_what? No it wasn't _Lorelai's mind yelled at Luke. "… I pushed her"

"I don't…"

"I lied, I kept things from her… big things. I… I have a daughter" yeah he knew he was talking to Lorelai about their failed relationship, but it didn't feel like it. It felt like if he was talking to an old friend who would give him time to vent and a neutral opinion on the matter.

"You…?"

"I have a daughter, and she's 13. I didn't know about her until last year, that's when everything started going bad in our relationship. I can't believe something so good brought so much misery to my life"

"I _really _doubt your daughter was the reason your relationship went belly up" Lorelai told him truthfully; she wanted to assure him it hadn't been April's existence that had messed them up, but the way he had acted towards it. But she couldn't assure him, not if she wanted to keep playing it as a stranger passing by.

"Tsk" Luke snorted and took another drink. "She shows up and everything starts going bad, what would you call that?"

"W-what was your fiancé's reaction to your daughter?"

"Just what I thought it would be…" Luke lifted his head and tilted it so he could look at Lorelai. "She was amazing, she tried her best not to make April feel unwanted, she even threw her an amazing party when I was killing it"

"Then…?"

"I don't… I work better if I can focus on one thing at a time" Luke stated. "I figured our relationship was solid enough for me to focus entirely on my daughter. I wanted to prove to my fiancé that I _could _be a father and that I wouldn't screw up our own kids" Lorelai was biting the inside of her cheek to keep from crying. "Guess I was wrong" Luke mumbled Lorelai barely understood him. "I also wanted to have a little while with my daughter, you know? I mean, her mother had her all to herself for 12 years, 12 years! I wanted to have a few months before my fiancé over shadowed me"

"Aw Luke…"

"She would have, she is this amazing ball of energy with her own gravitational pull, I haven't met anyone who didn't like her. I was sure April would love her the instant she met her, and she did. More than a week after her birthday party, April was still talking about how amazing Lorelai was and how cool her party had been. Heck Lorelai got _my _daughter a better present than I did!"

"Lorelai was a 13 year old girl once; she knows what 13 year old girls like. She was bound to get her something she'd like"

"She also had a 13 year old not so long ago" Luke admitted; not that Lorelai didn't that know already, after all they were talking about her.

"Then why were you so surprised when Lorelai got April…?" Lorelai started to ask but was cut off, some how Luke was back to his old reading-her-mind antics, he anticipated all her questions.

"She was proving me right. April instantly liked Lorelai, and vice versa; but worst of all, I was proving I couldn't cut it as a father"

"Hey! Don't say that, you're an amazing father" she said sternly.

"What do you know, _Mimi, _you don't even know me"

"Because you care too much not to be, you talk with too much emotion not to be, and because I can see it in your eyes, the pure love and adoration for that girl" Lorelai's voice quivered slightly and Luke only slightly nodded absentmindedly. Silence fell between them.

"I never thought being myself would screw me over" Luke said out of the blue.

"What?"

"My fiancé… she said 'now or never' right before walking away to someone else's arms" Lorelai closed her eyes and winced a little like if someone had physically hurt her. "It took me close to 30 seconds to realize what was going on; she talks _way _too fast for her own good, sometimes its hard to separate the facts from her gibberish" Lorelai cracked a small, very small, smile. "By the time I looked up, she was gone. I was gonna go after her but I didn't know what to say, I've never been good with words so I figured I could just _show _her how I felt. Actions are better than words, right?"

"That's what they say" Lorelai was very interested in knowing what had gone through Luke's head that evening.

"I was halfway to her house before I thought that it'd actually be better to just take the plunge, go elope" _don't say you went home, Luke. Please don't say you went home. I was home for less than five minutes but it would kill me to know you went home and missed me, that all of this could've been avoided if I had stayed home 2 more seconds. _"I went to the Diner to pack, I was going back home when it occurred to me that I hadn't thought like Lorelai would" he chuckled, but it wasn't the nice-cute ones Lorelai loved so much, it was a weird-pitiful- sarcastic one she had never heard before. "I hadn't packed like Lorelai would, I needed to think of all cases scenarios so I went back to the Diner and packed the hell out of my truck, you wouldn't have been able to find a place for a peanut with how full my truck was" Lorelai thought back and slightly remembered all the crap that was in the back bed of the truck. "I didn't sleep that night; I was packing one-handed because I refused to set my cell down… I thought she'd call. Do you have any idea how hard it is to load a truck one-handedly?" Luke heard her suck in a shuddering breath, holding back tears wasn't working for her anymore. _What did I do to this man?_

"Well, I've never loaded a truck in my life before, so no"

"It's hard" was all Luke said.

"Luke, I…"

"Want a drink?" he motioned to the bottle in his hand; he knew Lorelai was going to stop being Mimi and start talking seriously, and he wasn't ready to do that just yet.

"Thanks" Lorelai took the bottle but just placed it on the bridge, far from Luke; he didn't notice, and if he did he didn't care.

"I punched him" Luke blurted.

"What?"

"Christopher. I punched him"

"What?!"

"After I left Lorelai's house, I drove around, then I drove to his place, went up to his apartment, knocked on his door, he opened, I punched, he fell, I waited for the elevator, and then I left" he told Lorelai in a calm even voice. "It made me feel good until my hand started hurting"

"And after your hand stopped hurting?" Luke sighed heavily. "Thought so. Self-destruct path and all, but that just didn't sound like you"

They both sat there, looking at the water and the small leafs floating on it. Silence took over, she didn't know about Luke but her mind wouldn't stop racing _we're finally talking, and we only had to break up. _

"I never meant to hurt you" Lorelai whispered. "I just…"

"I don't want to know why" Luke mumbled.

"But I want to tell you" she whined and Luke didn't say anything else; he had laid all his feeling out there, now it was her turn. "Before the ultimatum…" _bye-bye Mimi, hello Lorelai _"I talked with this shrink and…"

"What?" his head snapped up and turned to look at her.

"She was at dinner, my Mom had set Chris up with her and he didn't want to be set up so he asked me for help. I kept her attention on me by asking weird questions, Chris thought it was funny, Emily and Richard got mad, of course. When I wanted to leave I noticed her car had been blocking me in so I went over to ask her to move. One thing let to another and before I knew it I was on her back seat talking my head off. She said that I would never get what I wanted if I never asked for it, she told me that if you said 'no' then…"

"Wait, you barged into my diner and demanded we eloped because a shrink whom you had pissed off told you to?" Luke asked incredibly.

"I… I hadn't thought about it like that" _she screwed me over on purpose. She got even at me for making fun at her. I only teased her, she ruined my life! How is that an even payback!? _

"How's Rory?" Luke asked trying to get back to neutral turf.

"Rory? Who's Rory?" Lorelai asked _aha, we're back to Mimi._

"Right, sorry, I forgot you haven't met her yet"

"Luke…?" Lorelai asked after a little pondering.

"Yeah?"

"I have… you are the first… no one has ever…"

"That's getting annoying, usually I'm the one that stutters; now I know what it feels like to be on the receiving end"

"I still love you" Lorelai blurted out taking Luke and herself by surprise. "And I _know _I won't stop anytime soon" she was going on a limb and then some. "I told her, I told the shrink that you were the first man I had ever loved for real, the _only_ man I had ever loved"

"Lorelai…"

"You can't hurt the people you don't love, right?"

"Lorelai…"

"I am _so _sorry for that night, and for not waiting, and for pushing you and for…"

"Stop. Damn it, Lorelai! You're not playing fair, you can't come here and tell me you still love me after what happened, that's not fair"

"I'm not asking you to say it back; I'm not asking you for anything actually" Luke just let out an exasperated sigh.

"Pass me the bottle, please"

"No"

"Lorelai…"

"No, if we're talking, we're gonna do it sober"

"Ok then, I don't want to talk so pass me the bottle please"

"No" she stood her ground. Luke narrowed his eyes at her before he made a move to reach for the bottle himself, but it was on the opposite side from Lorelai so he had to reach over her; while doing so Lorelai couldn't help it and stole a kiss from him. '_If you're ever gonna steal something, make it a kiss' _Lorelai remembered reading in a fortune cookie, or something like that. Luke responded to the kiss eagerly.

"Not fair" Luke mumbled pulling back, he was shaking his head.

"I only went to Chris that night because I needed to talk, I didn't know where it was headed, I didn't mean for it to go where it did" Lorelai spoke fast fearing Luke would interrupt her again. "I swear I thought we were over, the shrink made some pretty good points, and the fact that Chris only trashed you and agreed with me didn't help. I needed to talk and Rory was having a goodbye party for Logan, and Sookie was already freaking out because I had been there for the past two days and…" she stopped when Luke shut her up with a kiss. When he made a move to pull back Lorelai grabbed the back of his head and pulled him more into the kiss. Seconds flew by and the kiss got heated, it wasn't until his hand caressed the side of her breast, making her moan out his name, that he pulled back like if he had been burnt. "Luke…?"

"I can't" Luke said a little out of breath and with his eyes still closed.

"Yes you can, I know you can"

"I can't ignore what happened. I can't help but think of how you were doing the same damn thing with some other guy a few days back, how you kissed him the same way, made the same sounds"

"I didn't, it was not the same. It was a mistake, a horrible horrible mistake. Luke, I would do _anything _to take it back, but I can't, and that kills me. I hurt you and that makes me feel horrible; you didn't deserve that, you're an amazing guy and…"

"Stop praising me, you did what you did to get even at me for hurting you with April" Luke spat out taking Lorelai by surprise.

"I didn't want to hurt you" Lorelai said sadly. "I just wanted someone to talk to, and I figured Chris would be a friend to me seeing as how I had gotten him off the hook with his blind date. For all I know he and my Mom set this up to make my life miserable" she mumbled the last part.

"You can't just blame your Mom for everything"

"You'll never be able to forgive for this, huh?"

"I love you, damn it, I tried to stop but I can't" Luke admitted and Lorelai couldn't help but smile a little. "But that doesn't change what you did" he added and her smile disappeared.

"So that's it?" Lorelai's voice quivered.

"I don't know what to do" Luke mumbled. "I can't stop loving you, but I can't stop the repeating image in my head of you telling my you slept with Christopher"

"You need to pick one, and I swear that whichever you pick, I'll respect it"

"What would you do?' he surprised her.

"Are you serious?" _this is easy _Lorelai thought. "Love always wins, Luke"

"Really? What if you knew I had been with another girl last week? If I had touched her? Kissed her? If she had touched me? Made me feel good, made me forget about you"

"Stop" Lorelai demanded. "He didn't make me forget about you. He made me feel worst because you weren't there. I got a glimpse of what my life would be from then on"

"What would you do, Lorelai?" Luke kept to the point.

"I would hunt her down"

"Be serious"

"I don't know" Luke let out a heavy sigh. "I'm gonna go. I'll be home and at the Inn when you make up your mind; I know you need time to think, to know if you can forgive me or not. But… Luke, if you _do _forgive me, it has to be for real. I want to put this behind me and never touch it again." With that Lorelai got up, grabbed the bottle and started to walk away.

"I do love you" Luke said but not loud enough for Lorelai to hear.

_**xXxxXxxXx**_

.o0 Lorelai's Bed 0o.

"Mom? Hey, how are you feeling? I came here as soon as I heard" Rory said taking a seat next to Lorelai's laying body.

"I'm good"

"You sure?" Lorelai nodded. "Do you want something? Popcorn? Red vines? Ice cream?"

"Nope, what I really want is for your sister to stop pressing up at my lungs, I can't catch my breath"

"You need to have a serious talk with her" Rory said with a smile while looking down at Lorelai's stomach.

"I already did, and her father did too"

"How is Luke?"

"Annoyed" Lorelai said with a devilish smile. "With the whole bed rest thing I have him in the palm of my hand, and I'm exploiting it"

"You've always had him in the palm of your hand"

"Have not!" Lorelai said appalled.

"You're right… you had him wrapped around your finger"

"That I did. There's a difference between 'wrapped around a finger' and 'having him in my palm' I would've thought you knew that"

"No, sorry, I skipped that day"

"Lorelai, Rory's car is in the driveway!" Luke called up the stairs.

"Luke, Rory's body is in our room" Lorelai called back teasingly.

"Hey, Rory's body, do you want dinner?" Luke asked walking into the room.

"Of course I…

"Ow" Lorelai said after sucking in a breath.

"Lorelai?"

"I'm ok, I… aaaaaow!" she hugged her stomach.

"Mom?"

"Bed rest over" was all Lorelai said.

.o0 Hospital Room 0o.

"You're gonna get her used to being carried around" Lorelai whispered tiredly, she had just woken up from her nap; before she fell asleep Luke had been holding the baby, not the she was awake Luke was still holding the baby.

"That's ok" Luke whispered making his way closer to the bed. "I'll carry her"

"Softy" Luke snorted and took a seat on the edge of the bed, baby-girl safely in his arms. "Thanks" Lorelai said out of no where. Luke frowned. "For coming after me that night"

"She has your right pinky" Luke said out of nowhere, he never liked talking about that time 'the dark year' like he would call it.

"Yeah, well… she has your hair" Lorelai shot back and Luke snorted. "And your lips" she smiled. "And hopefully your butt too" she teased.

"And my eating habits"

"No way, buster" Lorelai giggled. "She'll be a baseball freak like her daddy"

"How come she's pink?" Luke asked out of nowhere making Lorelai burst out laughing.

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You've been LoVeLuKe-ized

**Something different, something new. Tell me whatcha thunk.**


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